Switched at Birth Season One Recap

Switched at Birth is a show about two completely different families with one common similarity. Their daughters were Switched at Birth. The Kennish’s are a wealthy family after John Kennish (D. W. Moffett) played baseball for the Royal’s and now owns multiple car washes around their city. Regina (Constance Marie) and Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc), on the other hand, live in a small little house in a rough part of town just getting by. At school one day, Bay (Vanessa Marano) Kennish is testing her blood type and she finds out that she is AB, but her mom and dad are both A’s. This leads Bay in to talking to her parents about just how different she is in stature, looks, and, now, blood. She finally talks her mom, Kathryn Kennish (Lea Thompson) in to going to a genetic counselor where their fears had been confirmed. It was 99% positive that Bay was NOT their daughter and the hospital believes that there had been a mix-up at the hospital and they brought home the wrong baby. Two weeks later, the Kennish’s meet the Vasquez’s and when the girls are introduced to each other, it is shown that Daphne is deaf. The first season guides the two families through awkward introductions, fights, drama, relationships, and much more.

Here are just a few major points to remember from the first season (not including the switch):

Emmett

Emmett Bledsoe (Sean Berdy) is Daphne’s best friend from Carlton (the school for the deaf) that slowly grows a bond with Bay after a little while with her. She gets him to verbally communicate with her – once – and really begins to learn sign language to be able to easier communicate with him. The relationship drama with them really heats up the first time when Daphne all of a sudden realizes that there is a reason that she gets along so well with him and that she really likes him and wants to pursue a relationship with him. She then finds out that him and Bay are pretty much “together” and gets pissed off at Bay because Bay wouldn’t let her go out with Bay’s friend/ex-boyfriend but Bay decided she could go out with Daphne’s best friend. The drama really heats up with them towards the end of the first season in the spring when Bay goes against Emmett’s wishes and he gets so pissed off that he sleeps with Toby and Daphne’s friend.
Emmett also joins Toby’s band as the drummer and takes them by complete surprise. They keep asking him to join them for more shows and finally he travels with them to a festival where Wilke had exploited his deafness to help get them in.

Emmett’s Family Problems

Throughout the second half of the season Emmett goes through so much that it deserved its own number. His biggest problem started when his parents were getting a divorce and they were fighting over custody issues after Emmett moved in to his dads house when his mom made him sell his motorcycle to pay for vandalizing a billboard. At his dad’s he didn’t have much discipline and his dad’s girlfriend, Olivia, was definitely not helping. Emmett started skipping school and drinking alcohol. (The alcohol part started with Olivia when she told him that he would be able to work better at practicing his speech with a little liquid courage, whiskey.) When Bay went over to the house to check out the motorcycle that Emmett was working on so that she and Toby could get tire measurements, they found a lot of weed in a drawer in the garage. Bay finally realized that she needed to tell someone and talked to Melanie and Emmett’s father. His father finally realized, after his conversation with Bay, that he needs the structure and discipline that he gets from his mom and relinquishes full custody of him to her and tells this to Emmett at the basketball tournament between Carlton and Buckner Hall. He got really pissed at Bay for getting in the middle of the situation and after smashing his wrist in to a wall, he saw Simone, who was drunk, and they ended up sleeping together.

The Lawsuit

When the Kennish’s begin to go through with filing a lawsuit against the hospital and its staff, many surprising facts come out. The most surprising was the fact that Regina had known about the switch since the girls were 3, hired a private investigator to find Bay, and then kept the photos that were taken of her in a guitar case. Kathryn had also been tempted to write a book but the book would have messed with the lawsuit and there was also someone else working on writing a book about their life with details wrong and written to bring a poor light on to the families. Angelo, Bay’s biological father, also found the nurse that was working in the hospital that night and she gave him a signed affidavit detailing what she thinks happened with the switch.

Bay’s Biological Father

When Bay’s school puts on an art show, a guy shows up at Bay’s art and begins talking to her about it. He introduces himself and Bay finds out that he is her biological father. As the episodes progress, more secrets about Angelo start coming out, smallest of which being that he left Regina and Daphne because he believed that Regina was lying about not having an affair and also partly because of Daphne going deaf. Around episode 13, the big secrets start emerging. First, in October of 2009, Angelo disappeared from all records. There were no credit card purchases, no physical address, nothing. Angelo has an arrest warrant out for him because he beat his friend for sleeping with his then-fiancé. He had changed his name to Adam so that he could get another work Visa and go back to the United States. After all of this came out, Regina’s mother called immigration, told Angelo that she called them, and Angelo took off. Immigration didn’t have any record of him and he had just disappeared.

The Finale

Angelo finally called Regina. He was picked up by Immigration on his way back in to the states from Italy where he was fixing things for him and Regina to get back together. When she visited him, she told him that it was over between them but she couldn’t speak for the girls. If they wanted to see him, it was up to them.
This episode also includes the Carlton Prom! Bay and Emmett are going together (Emmett asked Bay to prom with ear plugs). Daphne asked Wilke but he can’t go because he has a paper to write. (Daphne asked Wilke out using a paper that said someone was looking for him and Daphne went up to him, handcuffed him, and invited him to prom). Wilke shows up to Daphne’s house to take her to prom after she invited a fellow friend from her school whom she has grown close with. Daphne was also a little mad with Wilke because when she went to his house, she found out through his dad that he is going away to a boarding school because of his grades and when he stole tests to make money.
At the prom, Wilke tells Daphne about the incident at the tournament and when she asks Emmett about it, he lies right to her face. When Daphne tells Wilke about it, he tells her what Simone said and that they should try to have fun, just the two of them, and let Emmett deal with his mess. Emmett is then seen watching Bay dance and he darts out of the prom, Bay sees, and follows him out. He ends up telling her about Simone and she runs off on him.
For a few episodes now, Regina has been dating Patrick, an artist who got her art in to his art show. He has been great with Regina, completely understanding, and Daphne loves him. Angelo keeps getting in the way though. At the end of the finale, John goes to Regina to tell her that their lawyer found someone who will take Angelo’s case. There are a few ways they could fight deportation: he has been in the country for 10+ years (but he a criminal record), it would cause an undue hardship on his child who is a US citizen (but they don’t want Bay to have to testify), OR he might be able to stay if he, in good faith, marries a US citizen.

Wow! What a season! Make sure to catch all the upcoming drama on the new season tonight at 8/7c on ABC Family!

Episode Description:
“This is the Color of My Dreams” – Bay returns from her summer trip with a new boyfriend. Kathryn juggles her duties as a wife and mom with her new career as an author. Daphne gets a new job. The kids return to school.